"that
the tog was but a tog, after all."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

IN WHICH WE CHANGE THE SCENE, AND THE SEX OF OUR PERFORMERS.

We must now leave the cutter to return to Portsmouth, while we introduce
to our readers a new and strange association. We stated that the boats
had been ensconced in a very small cove at the back of the Isle of
Wight. Above these hung the terrific cliff of the Black Gang Chyne
which, to all appearance, was inaccessible. But this was not the case,
or the smugglers would not have resorted there to disembark their cargo.
At that time, for since that period much of the cliff has fallen down,
and the aspect is much changed, the rocks rose up from the water, nearly
perpendicularly, to the height of fifty or sixty feet.

At that height there was a flat of about one hundred feet square in
front of a cave of very great depth. The flat, so called in
contradistinction to the perpendicular cliff, descended from the seaward
to the cave, so that the latter was not to be seen either by vessels
passing by, or by those who might be adventurous enough to peep over the
ridge above; and fragments of rocks, dispersed here and there on this
flat, induced people to imagine that the upper cliff was a continuation
of the lower. The lower cliff on which this front of the cave was
situated, was on the eastern side as abrupt as on that fronting the sea
to the southward; but on the western side, its height was decreased to
about fifteen feet, which was surmounted by a ladder removed at
pleasure. To this means of access to the cave there was a zigzag path,
used only by the smugglers, leading from the small cove, and another
much more tedious, by which they could transport their goods to the
summit of this apparently inaccessible mass of rocks. The cave itself
was large, and with several diverging galleries, most of which were dry;
but in one or two there was a continual filtering of clear pure water
through the limestone rock, which was collected in pits dug for that
purpose on the floor below; these pits were always full of water, the
excess being carried off by small open drains which trickled over the
eastern side of the platform. Some attention to comfort had been paid
by the inhabitants of these caverns, which were portioned off here and
there by sail-cloth and boards, so as to form separate rooms and
storehouses. The cookery was carried on outside at the edge of the
platform nearest the sea, under an immens